Reds Rock Wolves

It all went wrong after the break for the Wolves under 21s when they met League leaders Liverpool at Molineux on Monday evening.

After Liam McAlinden had fired Wanderers ahead just before the interval, the Merseysiders hit five without reply after the restart.

Inside the first two minutes Dani Pacheco played a ball through to Samed Yesil who, from an acute angle, forced Wayne Hennessey to palm away at full stretch.

For Wolves, two fouls on Zeli Ismail in a three minute spell, within range of the Liverpool goal, gave shooting opportunities and whilst the first was wasted, Ismail touched the second free-kick to Jordan Cranston who hit a low shot wide of the mark.

Krisztian Adorjan was booked for diving as he fell in the Wolves box as Jamie Tank challenged.

Pacheco cut into the box after a sprint down the left flank before hitting a shot straight at Hennessey. But the Welsh keeper was at his best in the 25th minute as he turned aside a sharp effort from Michael Ngoo.

Three minutes later, Johnny Gorman fed McAlinden on the left and his low cross was turned in by Ismail whose celebration was cut short by the linesman who was flagging for offside.

Liverpool keeper Daniel Ward made an excellent save to prevent McAlinden converting Ismail’s low cross, but the keeper was a t fault as Wolves moved into the lead two minutes before the break.

Ward made a hash of trying to collect Cranston’s cross and when Kristian Kostrna headed the ball down, McAlinden was there to sweep it home from eight yards.

From the restart a heavy Liverpool attack saw the ball pinging around the home area before it was eventually cleared.

Half-Time: Wolves 1 Liverpool 0

Five minutes into the new half, Pacheco’s long range shot took a hefty deflection off Sam Whittall and flew narrowly wide of Hennessey’s goal before Ismail almost doubled his side’s advantage. He charged down Danny Wilson’s attempted clearance and ran through on goal only for Ward to block at close range.

The Reds drew level in the 55th minute following a dubious free-kick award to the right of the box as Tank appeared to win the ball off Pacheco. The Spaniard took the kick himself and, after a tremendous scramble in the goal mouth, he drove the ball home through a sea of bodies.

In the two minutes that followed Ethan Ebanks-Landell struck the face of the bar with a cross from the left, and Ismail just failed to get his foot to Gorman’s driven cross.

After 59 minutes substitute Joao Teixeira slipped a pass through to Adorjan who shot into the far corner of the net, and five minutes later a header from Tank was intercepted by Pacheco who rounded Hennessey before slipping the ball into an empty net.

Worse followed when Pacheco intercepted once again, this time from Hennessey’s clearance, and his low pull back was turned in by Teixeira.

A crestfallen Wolves side conceded a fifth in the 76th minute when substitute Jordan Ibe, who had been on the field for just a few seconds, crossed for Ngoo to sidefoot home.